


Neighbors

by katierosefun



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Daisy is in her last year of college, F/M, First Impressions, Inspired by a Tumblr Prompt, Jemma is kind of a wingman, Or a wingwoman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-22
Updated: 2016-01-22
Packaged: 2018-05-15 13:45:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5787460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katierosefun/pseuds/katierosefun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“The Wifi broke down?” Coulson asked, bewildered. </p><p>“Yes, it broke down – and that’s why I’m in the middle of said crisis.” The woman rubbed her temples, her eyes squeezed shut. For a long time, she just stood there, breathing in deeply and shoulders just slightly trembling. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice muffled and thick with desperation. “I know that this is really none of your fault, and you’re just the poor guy who got stuck living next to me – but I’ve been living off of nothing but fruit snacks and coffee and I’m pretty damn sure my professor is gonna kill me – and my roommate’s off on some stupid field trip with her own class, where she could act as the star pupil – and my apartment’s a mess – and I don’t know how to fix the stupid sink – and…” </p><p>Coulson stood there helplessly as the woman’s voice spiraled down into a hopeless mumble. She looked more tired than angry now, and there was something incredibly pitiful about her stance. </p><p>“Listen,” he said after some time, “I don’t really know how to fix a sink – and I don’t know a single thing about getting the Wifi back up – but if you’ve been living off of nothing but fruit snacks and coffee…well, I’m pretty sure we can do something about that.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Neighbors

**_Neighbors_ **

She was surrounded by week-old wrappers and coffee cups and bent-up straws, but the mess wasn’t going to stop her from leaving her laptop or the hundred other tech gizmos littered around her desk. No, Daisy Johnson was absolutely glued to her seat, her eyes red (but not too red) and her hands alternating between furiously typing on the laptop to furiously plucking fruit snacks out of the oversized _Welch’s_ bag.

It was totally Jemma’s fault. Usually, _she’d_ be the one to drag Daisy away from the laptop and force her to eat some real food, but no, Jemma was away on some trip with her biochem class, which left Daisy to her own devices in the apartment they shared. (The two had decided that they didn’t like the dorm the college offered – and besides, Daisy was a bit of a free spirit.)

Under normal circumstances, Jemma would be delicately cleaning up the mess Daisy had made – and after another hour or so, she’d probably shut down the laptop and calmly tell Daisy to go take a shower and _take a walk_ , because holy _mother of God_ , things were spiraling out of control.

Right now, Daisy was well-aware that things were spiraling out of control. In fact, she knew that things had spiraled out of control a few hours ago, when Daisy looked up at the clock to find that she had been awake for more than twenty-four hours.

But this – right now – was her _mission._ Her computer sciences professor had been incredibly insistent on the assignment being completed – and if _that_ wasn’t terrible enough, the professor had _also_ made it frighteningly clear that this stupid assignment would be worth more than half of their grade.

“ _Shit,_ ” Daisy muttered, clicking away at her laptop. The Internet was slowing down. “Come on, come on, come on…hold it together. _Hold it together_.” Her eyes flitted over to the Wifi signal at the bottom right corner of the screen – and her heart plummeted as she realized that it was down to the last bar.

“What’s going _on?_ ” she asked incredulously, turning back to the rest of her assignment. “Come on, baby, don’t give up on me now! Just give me another two hours… _just another two hours!_ ” She had to get this done by today. If she didn’t, she’d be looking at a serious drop in her grades, and frankly, what with computer sciences being her top class, she did _not need that_. Computer science was, if anything, the _only_ class she was good at and _enjoyed_. She didn’t need to flunk out of it just because the stupid _Wifi_ wasn’t cooperating.

Daisy’s hand shot out to grab another fruit-snack. She patted around the bag for a bit – and then, when no fruit snack came to her fingers, she risked a glance at the plastic. Daisy spread the bag out in front of herself, frantically shaking it – and then, she peered inside to find that it was completely empty with only a few smears of the fruit-snack oil inside.

“That’s just great!” Daisy snorted, chucking the bag to the side. It was one of those special insanely-large bags, too, which was supposed to have lasted at _least_ a few more hours. _And_ that was the last of the fruit snack bags – _and_ Daisy had been living on nothing _but_ those snacks ever since she got the stupid assignment.

“Groceries later!” Daisy grumbled, turning back to her laptop. “Assignment and _stupid Wifi now_.” As she continued with her furious typing, she wished she could call Jemma and ask her to buy something sustainable. Or maybe she could just call Jemma to tell her that _oops, sorry, when you come back home, you’re going to find out that an earthquake ruined the apartment. Again._

Daisy was almost mid-way through her assessment when the Wifi blinked out.

She stared at the screen for a solid two and a half minutes before everything went to hell.

“ _Fuck_ –”

\--

“ – _ing hell! Are you fucking kidding me right now? No, you’re not allowed to do that! Fuck, he’s gonna kill me, do you hear? God, what’s wrong with the fucking Internet? Fucking_ –”

Coulson gave the door next to his a wary glance. He had been standing in the hallway for a solid forty-five seconds, listening to his neighbor rampage through…well, whatever she was going through. He didn’t know too much about his neighbors – he personally never made too much of an attempt to make small-talk with them – but he had run into them every so often to get mail.

From what he had gathered by his brief encounters with them, his neighbors were a pair of college students – both in their senior year, by the looks of it. And they were, as far as most college duos go, one of the strangest pairs Coulson had ever met. One of them was a prim and proper student from England who usually went out on the grocery runs – the other was a short-haired, energetic young woman who, judging by the random bouts of screaming through the walls, was a computer science student and also in a state of _absolute panic._

(Which, all things considered, was pretty normal for typical college students.)

But still, Coulson couldn’t help but feel that the screaming session was perhaps getting a little out of hand – and he figured that it’d be better for him to be the one to tell this woman to calm down before any other (potentially ruder) neighbor could.

He waited for the screaming to die down – it took another fifteen seconds – and finally, when he figured the coast was clear, Coulson knocked gently on the door.

Coulson could almost imagine what his neighbor’s reaction might be. Eyes wide, maybe – hair a little frizzy, and lips mouthing something along the lines of, ‘ _oh, shit_ ’ when coming upon the realization that she had been heard.

Coulson rearranged his features to look as calm as possible as the door suddenly swung open. And before he could even say anything, the woman standing in the doorway was already opening her mouth.

“Okay, _first of all,_ don’t even _tell_ me that I’m being too loud because I happen to be in the middle of a _crisis_ that is _much_ more important than a fucking _golf_ game right now!” She jabbed a finger in Coulson’s direction, her eyes narrowed and her cheeks flushed. She was, as Coulson suspected, in a mess. Her hair wasn’t exactly frizzing, but it was tied together in an unruly bun, and she was wearing a pair of week-old sweatpants and a faded band t-shirt. There were dark half-moons under her eyes, and she looked ready to potentially knock someone out with a toothbrush.

“Sorry,” Coulson said instead.

“Damn right,” his neighbor snorted. “What do I need to do to get some fucking _Wifi around here_?” She said the last part loudly, shooting a pointed glare at the security cameras in the hallway. “Some of us kind of have to depend on the Wifi to survive another semester, you know!”

“The Wifi broke down?” Coulson asked, bewildered.

“Yes, it broke down – and that’s why I’m in the middle of said crisis.” The woman rubbed her temples, her eyes squeezed shut. For a long time, she just stood there, breathing in deeply and shoulders just slightly trembling. “I’m sorry,” she said, her voice muffled and thick with desperation. “I know that this is really none of your fault, and you’re just the poor guy who got stuck living next to me – but I’ve been living off of nothing but fruit snacks and coffee and I’m _pretty damn sure_ my professor is gonna kill me – and my roommate’s off on some stupid field trip with her own class, where she could act as the star pupil – and my apartment’s a mess – and I don’t know how to fix the stupid sink – and…”

Coulson stood there helplessly as the woman’s voice spiraled down into a hopeless mumble. She looked more tired than angry now, and there was something incredibly pitiful about her stance.

“Listen,” he said after some time, “I don’t really know how to fix a sink – and I don’t know a single thing about getting the Wifi back up – but if you’ve been living off of nothing but fruit snacks and coffee…well, I’m pretty sure we can do something about that.”

The woman looked up, her brow furrowed. “What?” she asked.

Coulson cleared his throat. “I know what it’s like to have bad days,” he answered, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “And since I’m your neighbor…I think you could use a bit of a helping hand.” He offered a small, hopefully friendly smile. “There’s a pretty good sandwich shop just across the street. Does that sound like a good starting point?”

The woman bowed her head. Finally, in a small voice, she replied, “I’ll be out in a few.”

\--

Daisy didn’t change her appearance except throw on a jacket and swap out her sweatpants for a pair of slightly newer-looking sweatpants – and when she re-opened the door, she gave her neighbor an extra-long look, as though daring him to say something or judge her – but to her surprise (and relief), he didn’t say anything.

And nearly three and a half grilled-cheese sandwiches later, Daisy almost felt like a functional human being again, and she could think more clearly. The only thing she needed now was a nice, long, hot shower and the Wifi to come back up. And if the Wifi couldn’t be fixed, she’d just have to tell her professor about in the most apologetic way she could. And it wasn’t like Daisy had been slacking off – she was sure she could get her neighbor to be her alibi for that, too.

Speaking of her neighbor…

“Thanks,” Daisy said, picking at her napkin. “And um – I’m sorry if I was interrupting you in the middle of anything.”

“You’re welcome,” her neighbor responded. He was an older man, one with a receding hairline and a kind pair of eyes. All through their lunch, he had been nothing but polite and gentle. And Daisy knew that wasn’t always a common trait amongst neighbors.

“I never got your name.”

“I never got yours.”

“Daisy Johnson.”

“Coulson.”

Daisy managed a halfhearted smile. “Is that your first name or…?”

“First name’s Phil, but not a lot of people call me by that.”

“Ah,” Daisy nodded. She brushed aside her plate and added, “But seriously. Thanks. If there’s anything I can do to make it up –”

“You don’t have to make up anything,” Coulson instantly said. “Think of this as a friendly gesture.”

“Right.” Daisy looked back down at the table. “Still. Thanks.”

\--

So, things ended up being okay. The Wifi came back up a few hours later, and Daisy managed to finish her assessment in an orderly fashion. She ran into Coulson a few more times (sometimes on accident, sometimes on purpose…well, he had been nice), and by the time the week was over, Daisy had learned that –

One, Coulson was an absolute nerd who liked to collect anything from playing cards to little action figures,

Two, Coulson liked jazz music and beaches,

And Three,

Daisy was beginning to crush on the guy. (Which was, in retrospect, totally normal.)

\--

“So _this_ is the man who’s kept my friend alive,” Daisy heard Jemma say from across the room. They were in the sitting room while Daisy was trying to give the pizza delivery guy the right amount of money. (She couldn’t get the damn coins out of her wallet properly, and the fact that the pizza guy looked bored and annoyed wasn’t exactly helping the matter.)

“I wouldn’t say I kept her alive…” Coulson replied, but Daisy could hear a smile in his voice. Thank God, too, because Daisy had been worried about what Jemma and Coulson would think of each other. (And boy, Daisy wanted Jemma to like Coulson, because that would make things so much easier.)

This was supposed to be a casual thing, too. Daisy had invited Coulson over on a whim, saying that it was because Jemma had come home, and they were planning on doing nothing but watching some old British film and “would you like to join?”

“Got it!” Daisy said loudly, passing the money along to the pizza guy. “Sorry – yup, I’ve got it.” She swung the door to a close and balancing the hot pizza box in her hands, Daisy made her way into the sitting room. “All hail food!”  

Jemma and Coulson both laughed, and Daisy felt something warm up in her chest. She shot a wide grin at the two before setting the box down. “Right – I’ll be back with the plates.”

“I’ll help,” Jemma said quickly. She bounced off the couch and grabbing Daisy’s arm, the two retreated into the back of the apartment.

“You’re going to ask him out, yes?” Jemma said under her breath.

Daisy blinked, stunned. “I…hope?” she managed to say.

“Good,” Jemma said, satisfied. She pressed some of the napkins into Daisy’s hands. “Because I was beginning to wonder if I’d be the one to ask him out for you, and you know how rubbish I am with that.”

“You’d never be able to do it. You’re about as smooth as a…not-smooth object.”

“Very good point.”

\--

Coulson was sitting on his bed when he finally took off his jacket. But as he took it off, he felt something crinkle in his pocket – and then, with a frown, he dipped his hand inside to find a napkin.

He set it out in front of him. Slowly, a smile spread across his face.

_Any chance we could go out for lunch sometime? (And not just because we’re neighbors.)_

_\- Daisy_

**Author's Note:**

> **Written for Skouson RomFest 2k16. 
> 
> **Also inspired by OTP Prompts on tumblr.


End file.
